Movie Night at the Virtual Cinema: Phantom of the Opera (1943)

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I’ve been using SKYBOX VR on Oculus Quest to watch movies in a virtual cinema that I didn’t get to see when they were theatrically released. The illusion of sitting in a movie theater is a convincing one, minus any reaction from the (non-existent) audience. It doesn’t change my perception of the films I’ve been watching — I’m just doing this for fun: to whet my appetite for going to the movies, and for a little VR escapism.

Warning: Spoilers ahead. 

This film was a remake of the original silent film The Phantom of the Opera from 1925, which in turn was based on the novel of the same name. I've never seen the original film nor read the book, and this was my first time watching this movie, so all of this is new to me. I chose this one because for the past few years, during fall and leading up to Halloween, I've been watching the old Universal Monster movies. As this one seemed to be on the periphery of those movies, I chose it to start with, prior to October. You may be wondering if this even qualifies as one of the Universal Monster movies, but as it was included in the Universal Monsters Blu-ray set, I'll say "yes".

The film centers around Erique Claudin, a violinist with the Paris Opera House, who suffers some setbacks -- physical problems which impair his playing, followed by the loss of his job at the Opera House, and finally getting jerked around by a music publisher and then misconceiving that they're going to steal his music -- before finally erupting in rage, murdering the music publisher, and then having acid splashed in his face, disfiguring him. Before the murder, he is a somewhat sympathetic character, but once he snaps, he is clearly the villain. He dons a mask and takes refuge within the massive Opera House, where, due to the sheer number of rooms, no one will ever find him (yes, this is the rationale they give; they even mention the specific number of rooms, which I can't remember).

One thing I was not prepared for from this film was the actual amount of opera in the film. There's a lot of it. It's called Phantom of the Opera and they weren't kidding. Also: oddly-placed humor. Someone gets murdered, then 2 minutes later there's a comic scene between the actor and inspector who are both competing for the affections of Christine, the young singer/actress on the rise who Erique has been secretly financing and longing for.

Watching this in SKYBOX VR definitely gave the film a more theatrical presentation ("No kidding", said anyone reading this), though, like the previous film I watched in it -- 1953's The War of the Worlds -- this one wasn't shot in widescreen, so there's less of a benefit to watching it in a virtual theater with a wide screen. Still, it was an enjoyable experience, even if the film itself didn't really appeal to me.

This was an interesting film with some overly-long opera sequences and some very out-of-place humor. I will say that I liked the ending, and found Christine's two would-be suitors to both be likable. The final scene between the two of them still makes me smile when I think of it. And considering that, I guess this film wasn't so bad after all.